Railway-station indicator.



No. 789,956. PATENTED MAY 16, 1905. 0.BALOGH.

RAILWAY STATION INDICATOR.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 11,1904.

TSSHEET 1.

No. 789,956. PATENTED MAY .16, 1905.

1 O. BALOGH.

RAILWAY STATION INDICATOR.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 11,1904.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

H 4 4 ii 42- Q UNITE STATES Patented May 16, 1905.

ATENT Trice.

RAILWAY-STATION IN DICATOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 789,956, dated May 16,1905.

Application filed June 11, 1904. Serial No. 212,133.

To aZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, OTTO BALOGH, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chicago, in

the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in Railway- Station Indicators; and I do herebydeclare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of theinvention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which itappertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to a novel construction in a station-indicator forrailway passenger-cars, the object being to provide a simple andeflicient device of this character; and it consists in the features ofconstruction and combinations of parts hereinafter fully described andclaimed.

In the accompanying drawings, illustrating my invention, Figure 1 is aplan section of a station-indicator constructed in accordance with myinvention. Fig. 2 is a vertical section of the same on the line 2 2 ofFig. 1. Fig. 3 is a vertical section on the line 3 3 of Fig. 1. Fig. ais a fragmentary detail section on the line 4: 4 of Fig. 1. Fig.5 is adetail view showing means adapted to be connected with my device andactuated by a projection adjacent the rails for operating same.

My said device comprises a casing 1 of any suitable material, in whichare mounted two sets of standards 2 and 3, each set comprising threestandards disposed in alinement with each other, said standards 2'beingprovided with bearings for the shafts 4 and o and said standards 3 beingprovided with bearings for the shaft 6. On said shafts 1 and 5 are reelsor drums 8 and 7, to each of which is secured one end of a roll 9 offabric of any suitable kind having. printed thereon at regular intervalsthe names of the stations which are consecutively passed by therailway-car carrying the indicator. The said roll is trained over a drum10 on the shaft 6, the said drum being provided on its side edges withperiph eral projections 11 at regular intervals, between which arerecesses 12 for the reception of cross-rods 13, secured to said roll atregular intervals corresponding with the peripheral distance between therecesses 12 and projecting beyond the side edges of said roll.

of stations are printed thereon and are adapted to coact with the drum10 and mechanism for operating same to cause the names of said stationsto appear consecutively opposite an opening 1 1 in the casing in which atransparent pane 15 is mounted. The said roll is unwound from one of thereels or drums 7 and 8 and wound upon the other thereof, the movementbeing reversible to accord with the direction of travel of the car. Onsaid shaft 6 are mounted two ratchet-wheels 16 and 17, the teeth ofwhich point in opposite directions,respectively,and each of the saidratchetwheels is actuated by a dog in the manner which I will nowdescribe. Loosely mounted on said shaft 6 adjacent each of saidratchetwheels 16 and 17 is a frame 18, atone end of which is a weight19, which serves to hold said frame normally in a given position, suchposition being shown in Fig. 3. Pivotally secured to said frame at oneside thereon is a bell-crank lever 20, having a short arm 21 serving asa pawl to engage the ratchet-wheel and having a long arm 22, at the freeend of which is a weight 23, which serves to normally hold said pawl outof engagement with said ratchet-wheel. The said bell-crank lever ispivoted at its elbow and adjacent same is provided with a-projecting eye24; to which is secured one end of a cord 25. The latter is trained overthe top of the frame 18 and is passed through an eyelet 26 thereon andpasses thence downwardly over an idler mounted in the bottom of thecasing 1, so that by pulling on the other end of said cord said arm 21of said lever 20 will be thrown into engagement with the ratchet-wheel,and by further pulling on said cord the said frame 18 will be turnedagainst the action of said weight 19, thereby turning said shaft 6 inone direction. The said frames 18 are respectively reversed, and thecord 27, connected with the bell-crank lever of the other of saidframes, passes on the opposite side of the shaft 6, so that by pullingonsaid cord 27 the said shaft will be turned in the opposite direction.The movements of the said frames 18 are limited in bothdirections bysteps 28 and 29.,

which are so arranged as to allow said frames a movement through an arcof about eighty degrees. Mounted at one end of said shaft 6 is apolygonal member 30, which accords in the number of its sides with theprojections 11 and in the instance illustrated is square. Hinged to oneof the standards 3 is a plate 31, which is normally held in contact withone of the sides of said member 30 by means of tension-springs 32 in anobvious manner, said plate being turned against the action of saidsprings by the partial revolution of said member 30 and serving when thesame has been turned through an are greater than forty-five degrees tofurther turn the same to complete an arc of ninety degrees, therebycausing said d'rum to be turned to a position in which one of the namesof stations printed on the roll is brought before the opening 14in plainview of the passengers. Loosely mounted on the said shafts 4 and 5 aredrums 33 and 34, over each of which one of said cords is trained, thecord being trained over the drum 33 on the shaft 4 and the cord 27 beingtrained over the drum 34 to turn said drums, respectively, in oppositedirections. The said drums 33 and 34 are disposed adjacentratchet-wheels 35 and 36, respectively, which are rigidly mounted ontheir respective shafts and the teeth of which point in oppositedirections, respectively, each of said ratchets being adapted to beengaged by spring-dogs 37 and 38 to turn said shafts with said drums,said spring-dogs being mounted rigid with said drums. Only one of saidshafts 4 or 5 is operated at one time to turn the reel thereon to windthe roll upon the same. Thus when the cord 25 is pulled the drum 10 willbe turned in one direction to feed the roll toward the shaft 4, and thelatter is-simultaneously turned to take up slack in the said roll, saidcord 25 being adapted to slip as soon as the roll is taut between saidshaft 4 and said drum 10. When said shaft 4 is so turned, the shaft 5 isfree and is turned by the tension of the roll against the retardingpressure of the spring-dog engaging the ratchet-wheel on said shaft,while the drums are held against free rotation by spring-actuated brakes39, bearing on the periphery of one flange of each. The said cords 25and 27 pass through suitable openings 40 in the bottom of the casing 1and are secured at their ends to rings 41 of larger diameter than saidopenings. To each of said rings is secured a cord 42, which at its otherend is secured to one end of a spiral tension-spring 43 hung in theupper end of the casing, said spring serving to slacken the cords 25 and27 when the ring connected with either of same is released, thusenabling the weights 19 and 23 to return to their normal positions aftereach operation. Hinged to said casing 1 on its rear wall is a lever 44,the free end of which carries a projection 52, which is provided with arecess 53,

over which the free end 45 of a plate 54 projects, which plate issecured to said projection 52, said free end 45 of said plate .54forming a hook which is adapted to receive one of said rings 41 andoperate the device by moving said free end outwardly from said casing.My said device may be operated by one of the crew of the car or train,or it'may be automatically operated by placing on the road-bed adjacentone of the rails at predetermined points between stations projections46, which lie in the path of an antifriction-roller 47, mounted in thelower end of a plunger-rod 48, passing through the floor 49 of the car,and connected at its upper end with one arm of a bell-crank lever 50,pivotally secured at its elbow to a part of the car-body, the other armof said lever 50 being connected, by means of a rod 51, with the freeend of said lever 44. At each end of the roll 9 beyond the ends of thelist of stations printed thereon I omit the cross-rods, so that afterpassing the last station on the line the further operation of my devicewould not injure or tear the roll, such end portions being adapted topermit free rotation of the drum 10, and the friction of the cords 25and 27 on the drums on the shafts 4 and 5 being insufiicient to causesuch roll to be torn. Upon reaching or passing the last station thelever 44 is connected with the other of said rings 41, so that the rollwill be reversed when the car makes its return trip'.

My said device is simple, durable, and very efficient.

I claim as my invention 1. In a device of the kind specified, thecombination with a web having printed thereon at regular intervals thenames of railway-stations, and two reels connected with opposite ends ofsaid Web, of a drum over which said web is trained, means for actuatingsaid drum to turn same at intervals, and coacting means common to saiddrum and said web to determine the distance said web is fed at eachoperation, said actuating means comprising a ratchet-wheel rigid withsaid drum, a pawl engaging same, a cord connected with said pawl forthrowing same into engagement with said ratchet-wheel and turning thelatter, a ratchet-wheel rigid with one'of said reels, a second drumloosely mounted adjacent same over which said cord is trained, and aspring-actuated pawl carried by said second drum and engaging saidlastnamed ratchet to turn said reel simultaneously with said first-nameddrum and take up slack in said web.

2. In a device of the kind specified, the combination with a web havingprinted thereon at regular intervals the names of railway-stations, andreels upon which said web is adapted to be alternately wound connectedwith opposite ends thereof, of a drum over which said web is trained,two ratchet-wheels having oppositely-disposed teeth rigidly mounted onthe shaftof said drum, pawls engaging said ratchetwheels, means forlimiting the-movements of IIO said pawls, means independent of saidpaWls for determining the movement of said drum at each operation,actuating means connected with said paWls for operating either of same,coacting devices carried by said drum and said Web for impartinglongitudinal movement to the latter, and devices connected With saidreels for imparting motion thereto, said last named devices beingoperated by the actuating means operating said paWls.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name in presence of twosubscribing Witnesses.

OTTO BALOGH. Witnesses:

RUDOLPH WM. Lo'rz, F. SGHLOTFELD.

